CINEMA: Caramel

Living in the relaxed, secular West, it’s sometimes surprising to see what hoops people have to jump through in other cultures in order to enjoy the level of freedom we have here. Watching the owner, employees and clients of a Beirut beauty parlour as they go about their daily lives, trying to express their emotions and needs in a society that often forbids them to, will make you realise just how lucky we all are to have the freedoms we do. That is why Caramel is by turns so uncomfortable and yet comforting.

Christian Layale (director and star Nadine Labaki) has a married lover, an absolute no-no in this devout country, and so even trying to arrange a clandestine meeting with him in a hotel room without producing a marriage license proves difficult. Meanwhile, muslim hairdresser Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri), is willing to undergo surgery rather than tell her fiancé she’s no virgin. But the biggest no-no of all is when one of the salon girls falls for a beautiful female client and they must sublimate their feelings for each other in the sensual act of hair washing and nothing more.

Labaki’s style is incredibly kinetic and naturalistic – nothing about this film seems posed or rehearsed, it simply happens. And watching these small windows into these women’s lives you can celebrate their strength, tenacity and ingenuity at getting around the restrictions imposed upon them, but boy, doesn’t it make you feel glad you were born in Britain.      Dee Pilgrim